Life
by wattamelon19
Summary: My life hasn't been a particularly good one. With a father who sold me to keep off of police radar, an undeniable thirst for blood, and a very...persistant vampire wanting to capture me because I have a gift that he likes, I don't have it easy. But I do have Benjamin, who is the only vampire I can trust in this world. And I think I love him. Maybe. Living series.
1. The one with desert snow and fried rams

**AN: This is my first Twilight fic, so I'm pretty pumped about it! I was watching the movie and absolutely fell in love with Benjamin. I liked him in the book too, but now there's a face to go with the character, and Rami Malek (the actor who plays Benjamin) is simply too gorgeous to be ignored. So review and tell me what you guys think!**

_Tia's POV_

It felt like somebody had sliced me open and was sticking anything inside of me that could cause me pain with a knife. It wouldn't go away, it wouldn't stop. It just kept getting worse and worse as the day went by, and I couldn't even scream out of fear that my captors would come outside and realize that I wasn't dead. So I had to lie there motionless, in the pile of broken glass where they threw me, until the pain went away.

Maybe I would die. By this point, it was an opportunity that I would welcome with open arms. The only place I would go to is Heaven, and that sounds a whole heck of a lot better than this slow torture.

I didn't even know what was happening to me. They had thrown me in the glass after I pretended to be dead, although I didn't know why I did that in the first place. It wasn't like my body was strong enough to walk anyways.

But I played dead and they bought it. All was well and good for about ten minutes, which is when I decided to see if I could crawl somewhere because of the possibility of finding food. That was when I saw the shadow the streetlights made. But the shadow disappeared so fast that I wasn't sure if I was hallucinating or not.

That was when I felt it. The skin on my stomach being cut very quickly. It didn't particularly hurt, but I couldn't see what it was because I didn't have the strength to lift my head. Of course, that was when the pain started, and the cut on my stomach all but disappeared.

I somehow managed to keep completely still, although I have no idea how. I wanted to scream at the top of my lungs and thrash until the glass below me broke into shards so small that they could have been dust. But I didn't. I lay there, quietly suffering the agony, until one day, it wasn't there any more.

At first I didn't recognize that anything was different. I knew something was missing, but I couldn't figure out what. Every muscle in my body twitched and I sat up before I knew what I was doing. Then I realized two things- I no longer hurt, and I could move.

I looked down at myself, and found that there was more of me than there had been before they threw me out on the street. I was no longer the emancipated, starved version of myself that I had come to know, but rather the old version- only better. My olive skin was smooth, the cuts and bruises from months in captivity gone. My hipbones didn't stick out at the frightening angles that they did before. I had muscles in my legs instead of just bone. My black hair was smooth and shiny again.

I felt strong. I wanted to run twelve miles without stopping, but first, I wanted to see if I could stand. I tried to go slowly, but this new body of mine didn't like slow. I was up in less than a second without any effort at all, and I couldn't stop myself from giggling out of excitement. This was all so _new_, so exciting.

It didn't take very long before I started to question it. Why did this happen? What happened? Who did it to me? What did I do now? What was I?

There were so many questions that I couldn't answer, but the sun surely helped.

There are virtually no clouds in Egypt. The sun is up all day, baking everything under it. I had gotten used to it over the years, accepting the dry heat. But the sun had never made me sparkle before.

At first I thought it was pieces of glass stuck to my body from the pile I had been lying in. But I brushed myself off and found that I was still the same. _Did somebody put _glitter_ on me_? Glitter was my number one pet peeve. I hated the stuff.

So I brushed myself off again to no avail. I was still sparkling, and I really didn't want to draw attention to myself. I needed to go somewhere where nobody would find me.

Where to go? I couldn't go home, my father had pretty much vetoed that option when he gave me to those people in payment of his wrongs. I couldn't go back into that miserable prison where food and water is nonexistent.

And that was when it started. At the thought of water, I got the worst, most dry feeling I had ever experienced in my throat. I was _thirsty_, but not for water. I needed something else, something more. But what? The thought of any normal drinks made me want to throw up.

It wasn't until somebody walked by that I realized what I really wanted, and it completely creeped me out. Blood. I wanted _blood_. It smelled so good, so appealing, that I almost couldn't resist when more people started to walk by my little alleyway. That was all I needed. If I just had a little sip of blood then I would be okay.

I had to get away from here, from the overly crowded city of Cairo. This weird newfound obsession of mine was only going to get worse. So I started running, not really caring or paying attention to where I was going.

The world didn't blur around me, so I didn't notice how fast I was going until I ended up in the middle of the desert. _How did that happen_? I decided to test it. I took off the threadbare jacket I was wearing and set it down beside me on the dune I was standing on. I looked at the dune in front of me and took off; counting in my head how many seconds it took to get there.

I didn't even get to one. I was like, "O- oh, I'm there." It was a very strange feeling, so I ran back to the dune I had marked. Barely any time had passed before I got there.

I stared back at my arms. It was still sparkling; it looked like someone had embedded diamonds on my skin. I could run so fast it wasn't believable. I was thirsty for blood. And now that I thought about it, I could hear things that a normal human shouldn't hear. I heard a snake slithering sideways in the sand several dunes away. I shouldn't even be able to _see_ that. My injuries were all better, my ankles no longer broken, I had managed to gain weight in the two days that the pain had invaded my body. I felt good. Really good.

My memories of the prison were all blurry. I knew they were real, but I couldn't remember every detail of what happened. The names of my captors –something I thought I would never forget- were no longer in my mind. Pretty much the only thing I was sure of at this point in time was my name, Tia Pashaki, and that God had some seriously weird plans for my life. Perfect, but weird.

I'm not sure how long I stayed out in the desert, trying to figure everything out. So many ideas and thoughts swirled around in my mind, but one kept coming up. Vampire. _Vampire_. Was I a vampire? How was that even possible? Vampires didn't exist, did they?

This wasn't real. It was obviously some crazy dream. I was still back in that prison, giving up hope of ever getting out. I never thought of the idea of pretending to be dead, and they never fell for it. The days of pain out in the streets never happened. My skin was not glitter-infested (although I wasn't really disappointed over that one).

Well, it's a good dream. Might as well make the most of it before I wake up, right?

First things first. I wanted blood. The idea was a little gruesome, but it was the only thing I could think of. I didn't want to kill a human, because even in Dreamland the idea was unappealing. So then how do I get blood?

Conveniently, a camel decided it would check out what the weird glowing creature standing on a sand dune was. I killed it before I knew what I was doing. After I was finished, my throat didn't burn as much. I still wanted blood, but not like I had before. It wasn't an if-I-don't-have-some-now-then-I-shall-DIE situation anymore. It was more like an annoying person tapping my shoulder every few minutes. Always there, but not enough for me to go nuts and kill the person poking me.

So what now? I didn't want to go back to the city. Too many temptations, too much blood. Better to stay out here and explore my new…everything.

It turns out I had more talents than what I had already discovered. Okay, I had _one_ more talent, but it was so cool that it counts as like five million and four.

It all started with the antelope. It had these horns that were all twisty, and it looked like it had _so_ much blood under that fur. I couldn't resist. I started drinking, but another antelope came up behind me and rammed me in the back.

I thought I was dead. I was terrified. What happens if you die in a dream? Do you die in real life too? But the ram's horns shattered against my diamondy skin. I turned around to look at it, only to discover that the thing had been fried. There wasn't a drop of blood left in it, but it would have made an awesome meal if I were hungry for anything but blood.

Can vampires fry things? I tried again, but I had no idea how I'd done that. Was it my imagination?

The more I wondered about it, the cooler the rams got. That didn't happen often in the Sahara desert. I was clueless about so many things now, and it was getting on my nerves. I had never liked not knowing things, and now that I was in vampire mode, the feeling was much stronger.

Something wet touched my forehead. It was a water droplet. Was it _raining_? I looked at the sand. There was no water on it, but there was a bunch of white flakes. Snow? No way. No way there was snow in the hottest place on earth.

But it was. It was snowing in the Sahara, and it wasn't light snow either. It had piled up to my knees in less than a minute, and it continued to rise. It wasn't all over the desert; it lay in a perfect circle all around me, with about a three-foot diameter.

I smiled. I had made it snow. And apparently I could also fry rams. Why could I do that? Of course, as I wondered these things, it only snowed harder. I was completely buried in snow by this point, but it wasn't cold. It felt nice against my skin, like a smooth liquid. It was almost relaxing, as strange as it sounds.

Was this tied to my emotions? I was scared and that was when the ram got fried. I was trying to figure out the ram thing when it started snowing. So when I was worried or confused, it would snow, and when I was scared or mad I…did what? Maybe I made the air around me hotter or something. Yeah. That's not totally impossible, though I doubted _anything_ was impossible in this Dreamland of mine.

So over the course of this day I have discovered, there's no other word for it, _wacky_ stuff. And I didn't even know if any of it was real. I wanted to ask somebody so bad, but going back into the city would not be good right now. Could I control my thirst around humans? Did it even matter? If this was a dream, then those people weren't real anyway. But what if it wasn't a dream? If this was real? Then I would have murdered innocent people for no other reason then me being thirsty for something I didn't need. I had drunk a whole camel and a ram for goodness sakes! My throat was still burning though. It wanted more.

The temptation of answers was so great that I couldn't ignore it though. So before I changed my mind, I drank two more camels and headed back in the direction that I knew Alexandria was in. I didn't want to go back to Cairo. My father was there, as were the people that held me captive for so long. I wasn't sure how I could handle myself around them yet.

**AN: Do you like it, hate it, want more? Review and tell me!**


	2. The one with Herman the water fire ball

**A/N: I had a question about what time period this was in, and to be honest, I don't know. It's before Breaking Dawn, I can tell you that much. Just assume that all of this happened in like 2003 or something. That sounds like a pretty good year. And to answer Emily Alice Cullen, yes, this is Benjamin's Tia. No it isn't AU, but you'll get an explanation later on in the story (: **

**Oh, and everyone's eyes are red in this story. I just like it better that way. **

**Review!**

"**Only fools do not accept advice." **

_Tia's POV_

I smelled him before I saw him. It was different from a human smell. There was no blood pulsing beneath his skin, and he didn't have that weird dirt smell that I had begun to associate with humans. No, he smelled clean. Fresh. Like water that has never been touched by anyone. It immediately made me curious; I had to get closer, had to figure out where the scent was coming from.

Was it another vampire? I tingled with both excitement and nervousness.

The legends I found in Alexandria didn't help at all. They were mostly about vampires similar to Dracula. I was going to dig deeper, search more, but then the library I had broken into started filling up with people. With blood.

I ran back to the desert before the word _thirsty_ could even cross my mind. I guess I had overestimated myself when I thought I could go back into the city after drinking a few camels. Human blood was so much more appealing to me, and I knew it would be so much more satisfying than animal blood. But I had so much gray area in my mortal compass. We all deserved to die with all the evil we do every day, but did the families of the people I would kill deserve to go through that pain? If I killed someone, should I go to jail for my crimes? What good would it do? I would just kill more people there.

This vampire thing was beginning to get annoying.

I smelled the air again to see if that mystery scent was still there, and it was. It was actually stronger, like whoever I smelled was getting closer. I wondered if I could track them. If dogs could do it, then maybe so could I.

I would give you the long version, but that would involve many cuss words, more snow, an incident with a frog and a camel, and a rabbit (I didn't even know that rabbits could live in the desert) who stole my shoes. So after I gave up, I was covered in frog blood, barefoot, and the sand froze wherever my feet touched it.

Apparently I could do more than make it snow. It wasn't necessarily the elements I was messing with. It was more like the temperature. If I was mad, happy, surprised, or really excited, then the air around me heated up. If I was sad, worried, or confused, then the air around me would become really cold, causing it to snow or the ground to freeze. Or at least that was how I thought it worked. I wondered if I would be able to control it better as I got more experienced in this life. Then I wouldn't have to wait for an emotion to use this gift, or whatever it was called.

By the time that I was done thinking about all this newness –I seemed to be doing a lot of that lately- the scent was no longer in the air. I frowned. I had lost the only lead I had found, even if it wasn't much of one.

That was when I saw it. It was a little ball of water, floating in the air about fifty feet in front of me. As you can probably imagine, this captured my attention pretty quickly. I took a step closer to the ball. It moved a little further away from me. It was kind of like when people attach a piece of string to a dollar and every time someone get's close enough to grab the dollar, they yank the string at it moves away. Only, mine was with a floating ball of water, which is slightly more rare than dollar bills.

I followed the water, not entirely sure if I should be doing this or not, but hey, enough strange things had happened to me in the past three days that this seemed almost normal. And maybe it let to whatever I smelled earlier.

After I had been following it for about fifteen minutes, –it felt like three hours, though- the ball caught on fire.

"Whoa!" I shouted, jumping back a few steps. The fire/water ball moved backwards with me.

Talk about weird.

I took a cautious step forward, fully expecting the fire to blast back at me. That just seemed like something that would happen, you know? "Vampire girl gets blasted by water/fire ball in middle of the Sahara". It would make a good headline.

When the ball did not explode, I continued following it, changing direction whenever it did to stay on course. It sped up at one point, going so fast that only a vampire could follow it.

Whoever was controlling (I had decided to call it Herman) Herman now knew what I was. I wasn't sure if that was a good thing or not, but I also didn't know if Herman was being controlled by anything. Maybe this happened out in the desert. I never did take any interest in it because it was to close to PASHAKI headquarters. Most people tended to avoid that, unless they _wanted_ to be sold for sex or drugs or money. Or if they just had really _really_ bad parents (like mine) that would put them in there anyways, so they could stay on the good side of the law.

How does selling your daughter keep you on the good side of the law, you ask? Well. Let me tell you. **(A/N: All of this is made up; I'm sure the government in Egypt is not like this. I mean no offense to anyone. It's just necessary to the story.)**

The police in Egypt are seriously screwed up. They put people in danger every day instead of saving them, which is probably not in their job description. But they have special reason to hate my father. He's blackmailing them. See, not many people know about how corrupted they are. It's easy to be respected when you carry a large gun and aren't afraid to shoot anybody. Nobody assumes a thing.

But my father used to work for them. I don't know what he did; he never told anybody. He just said that he quit because he had reason too, and that was it. After he had been jobless for a few years, he thought of an "excellent" idea to make money. Blackmail the police because he knew exactly what they did, how they did it, and when they did it. He knew about how they sold people for anything of value.

So he threatened to expose them, and just like _that_, the money started pouring in. We were rich. And that was when things started to go downhill. He was reckless with our money, boasting about how he had the police wrapped around his finger. He took over the trafficking business, figuring we could be even richer that way. He became a greedy shell of a man, and that was when the police came back at him and started blackmailing _him_. Threatening to expose him.

Can you guess what he did then? Yep. He sold me. His own daughter, to his trafficking business, not knowing –or caring- where I would end up. I don't know if the police ever exposed him or not, but I hoped they did.

He deserved it.

And then Herman really _did_ blow up, the fire exploding around it. I wasn't touched, though. The flames curved around me, enveloping me, but they didn't touch me. I wondered what would happen if they did. Can vampires burn to death?

**OoOOoO**

_Benjamin's POV_

I was having waayy to much fun with this. My ADHD brain was jumping up and down, ecstatic that I _finally_ had someone to mess with. Amun was getting annoyed with me, so he told me to go away for a week.

At first I was annoyed. I couldn't bother anyone for a whole week? No. Just no. That wasn't going to happen. Bothering people was my specialty.

I was walking down the street, wondering if there was a vampire lucky enough to be able to turn into a hamster, when I smelled her. If there's one thing that makes a really extremely SUPER attention deficit hyperactive vampire even _more_ ADHD, it is blood.

I intended to kill her. I hadn't eaten in all of two hours, which was far too long. This boy needed some sustenance! Immediately! But then I saw her, bleeding out on a pile of broken beer bottles. She was so skinny that it shouldn't even be possible. Like, were hipbones supposed to stick out that much? I could count all of her ribs. She was wearing only a threadbare jacket and sweatpants with a bunch of holes in them. No shirt, no bra, no underwear. _What had happened to her_?

She was so pitiful, so beautiful, that I couldn't bring myself to do it. She shouldn't be killed. Amun was going to _kill_ me. Hey, this will bother him! I KNEW I could bother him even when I wasn't within fifteen miles of him. That takes skill.

I made sure I was quiet. I didn't want to scare her, not when she looked so fragile and helpless. She might not take too kindly to strange guys in the middle of an alley.

I got real close to one of those sharp hips. With some meat on those bones, she would be…wow. Yeah. She _might_ even beat me in terms of attractiveness. That also takes skill.

I bit her. She started twitching immediately, and I saw her open her mouth to scream, when she stopped. Stopped moving, didn't even open her eyes, shut her mouth. Had I killed her? Did she see how gorgeous I was and die of shock that someone could be that cute?

I listened. I could hear her heartbeat beginning to slow down. I could sense the venom inside of her, changing her way quicker than it had changed me. I guess it was because she was so small. But she was gaining weight by the second, growing, changing. I smiled. Amun was going to be _so _mad. He may even threaten to bring the Volturi to Egypt. I loved it when he did that. If he were human, his face would be bright red and he would remind me of a puffy little security guard at the mall that knew people were stealing from his store, but he couldn't stop them.

Ha. I used to do that before I was changed. Amun had forbidden me from going back to the stores I used to visit, out of fear that someone would recognize me. He was _such_ a chicken. He needed to take some risks. Goodness.

Now, you may not believe this, but watching someone turn into a vampire is incredibly boring. So I decided to go hunt. That was what I had intended to do anyways.

And that was my downfall. The venom had moved through her body so fast that she was already mostly turned. Her heart just had a few beats left, but I didn't know it. I was too busy…eating.

You can imagine my shock when I went back to the alley and she was gone. At first I was all like _WHAT_? I _KNOW_ I just changed someone. Right here. It was definitely here. Wasn't it?

Then a very interesting flock of birds flew through the sky, and my attention was diverted for a few seconds. Darn birds.

That was when the logic kicked in? Where did I go when I first woke up all vamped up? The desert. I had to deal with myself, with the weird newness of the situation I had been thrust in.

Rolling my eyes, I ran to the desert. She would be there. I knew it.

**A/N: Songs I listened to whilst writing this chapter: **_**This is War**_**, **_**The Kill, **_**and **_**Closer to the Edge**_**, all by 30 Seconds to Mars. Also, **_**Forever **_**and **_**Last Resort**_**, by Papa Roach. **_**Prayer of the Refugee**_** by Rise Against.**

**Reviieeewwww! Seriously, you guys have no idea how much it means to me when you review. **


	3. The one with vampire hide and seek

**A/N: Sorry it took so long. I was working nonstop on my other Twilight story, **_**Immortal**_**. You guys should check it out! **

**Thanks to ElectricSocks for giving me inspiration to write this chapter, and for continuing to read **_**Immortal**_**. You are awesome!**

_The one with vampire hide and seek_

_Benjamin's POV_

I was pretty sure this girl was freaking out. Maybe I _shouldn't_ have thrown the water-fire ball at her. But it was cool! I loved mixing elements together like that. I also love grass. I don't know, I guess it's because you don't see much grass in Egypt. And squirrels! Those are quite possibly the cutest animals the world has ever seen.

Sorry. I get off track.

I could see her, standing as still as only a vampire could, inside of the flames I had swirling around her. Her eyes were about as big as…something big. The earth! Yeah, that's it. Her eyes were the size of planet earth.

I killed the fire, forcing it to extinguish itself so now she was just trapped by water. She narrowed her eyes and got this weird look of concentration on her face. It was cute, the way her eyebrows got all scrunched together. Then my water wasn't water anymore. It was ice, ice that was turning very quickly to snow. _Whoa_. Amun was going to flip. Was she an element controller too? Or, as I prefer it, an Avatar vampire? Yeah, yeah, I know. I'm a nerd. Shut up and go away.

I melted the snow and stepped a little closer to her, holding my hands up in a gesture of surrender. She didn't look really mad, just a whole lot confused. Which was good. I didn't do too well dealing with mad girls. Or any girls, really.

"Please tell me you're…like _me_," she whispered, staring at the sand below her feet. She was shaking, almost too fast for me to see.

"If you mean an undead, bloodthirsty, immortal, _attractive_ vampire, then yes, I am," I said, standing beside her now. "Benjamin." I held my hand out for her to shake. She did, but it seemed to take her a few seconds to decide if she should or not.

"Tia."

Tia was scared, plain and simple. I could see it on her face, in her body language. She was terrified to be this close to me. But I didn't _want _to frighten her. She was too pretty.

"H-how did you-" she began, but I cut her off.

"Some vampires have gifts, and I happen to be one of them. Mine's pretty rare, though. I've never seen another one of us with a talent like that. Except for, well, you. You froze my water bubble!" I made sure to sound light and happy, so I wouldn't completely terrify her. I wanted to make her smile.

"I can't control elements. I think it is temperature, actually," Tia informed me, a hint of a grin on her face now. _Yes_! Mission accomplished.

"Have you fed?"

She nodded. "A few animals stumbled upon my path. I'm not one for killing humans."

I stared at her. _Not killing humans_? That was weird. But, I had heard of it before. A couple of covens in America were like that. And I guess I'm just a little bit weird too, so maybe we balance each other out.

"How did I get like this?" Tia asked, sitting cross-legged in the sand. She didn't seem to be uncomfortable in the desert, which was good. Amun's hideout (well, palace really) is in the Sahara, on the other side. I wanted her to come back with me. Maybe.

I explained my story, watching her reactions. Her eyes got all dark and mad when I mentioned how skinny she was. At first I thought she was angry at me for noticing, but then I realized her fury was directed at the people that made her that way.

I got the feeling that Tia had had an _interesting_ life.

She kept asking questions about our coven. It was weird, how intrigued she seemed to be. I guessed it was because she had been alone in this life for a few days. It must be kind of a surprise to discover that there are more vampires out in the world.

And you know the weirdest thing? The more I talked to her, the more I really liked her. I liked how she flipped her hair over her shoulder when she was impatient. It was funny when she got confused and it randomly started snowing. Or when she got mad and all the sand she was sitting on turned to glass from the heat emanating from her body.

I almost didn't want to show her to Amun. I mean, I loved the guy, sure, but he was just a _tiny_ bit obsessed with rare gifts. He reminded me of Aro from the Volturi, which is to say, he was a little creepy sometimes. And he has this thing against girl vampires. He almost holds them prisoner. Kebi loves him, but she's scared to death of him at the same time. She's never more than a few steps away from him, out of fear that he'll lock her up again. He does that sometimes.

Did I really want to give Tia to him? But he could make her gift so much _stronger_, like he did with me and the Volturi tracker, Demetri. It was so tempting.

"I don't have to find my father, do I?" Tia said, breaking me out of Lala Land.

"Do what?" I was so startled that I fell over and rolled down the tall tune we were sitting on. I think I'm the only clumsy vampire in the world. It must come with looks, like the cuter you are, the klutzier you are. Well, if that was true, then Tia should have trouble walking across a flat surface without tripping.

After she was done laughing her head off at me, she answered my question. "Do I have to go back to my father? I really _really_ do not want to. Please don't make me."

My jaw dropped. _Don't make her_? Psshh. I don't think I could make her do anything she didn't want to do. What if it hurt her feelings? What if he didn't like her? No. Tia was to be surrounded with nice people only.

"No, you don't have to."

She sighed in relief and I felt the air around her become warm, like a winter afternoon. Well, a winter afternoon in Egypt, when the heat is _almost_ bearable.

"Hey Tia!" I yelled after about five seconds of silence. I was one of those people that didn't like the quiet. It was too heavy or something like that. I don't really know. "Have you ever played tag with a vampire?"

She laughed and shook her head. "I would like to. It sounds fun."

"It is!" I explained the rules. I would count to two, and she would run away. Then I would try and track her by her scent. Before Demetri joined the Volturi, I played this with him. Only he was a lot better at it than I was, because of his freaky brain tracker senses. I told him he was a professional stalker. He punched me in the stomach and I flew backwards so hard I broke a concrete wall, much to Amun's disappointment.

We had fun. I would throw water at her, drenching her completely, and she would turn it to steam. I didn't even notice how close we were to the building, the big black one that everyone knew to steer clear of, even us vampires. The place was evil. I could hear people screaming and smell fresh blood every time I was near it. Tia saw it first, her eyes widening in terror. She backed away, muttering stuff that sounded like "not again" and "I _knew_ I shouldn't trust him".

It scared me, the way she was talking and trembling and backing away from me like I was the cause of it all.

"You brought me here." It wasn't a question. It was a statement, her voice filled with cold fury.

"What? No! This place is _strange_. I wouldn't have even come over here except you ran this way."

Tia looked skeptical and took a half step back, distancing herself from the building and shuddering when a piercing scream came from inside it. "That sounded like Layla," she muttered, frowning at the ground. Snow started falling gently around her. I melted it so we wouldn't draw attention to ourselves.

"Tia," I began hesitantly. She looked at me, her eyes still wary. "What is this place?"

**OoOOoO**

I liked Benjamin. He was _different_. The guy couldn't stop moving. When he sat down, his foot was bouncing up and down and an astonishing speed or his eyes were darting all over the place or he was moving the sand with his element powers.

He was cute. Short black hair, curling at the ends, and burgundy eyes that seemed to understand each and every one of my problems even though he didn't know any of them. He talked of his coven, something that fascinated me. I wasn't alone. There were more vampires. This might not be a dream.

It was nice to know I wasn't going insane.

But then he had to ruin it by suggesting that game of hide and seek. It was fun, at first, chasing each other all around the Sahara desert at speeds that should have been impossible. He showed off a bit with his gift, catching random things on fire or throwing water balls at me. I was getting better at controlling my temperature thingy, too. I didn't have to be extremely mad to get hot now! It was an improvement from before.

The fun ended when I realized we had run straight into _Pashaki Industries_, the cover name for my father's trafficking business. I felt mad, betrayed, even though I had known him for like three hours. He had seemed so nice, and cute, and nice. And cute. And nice. But of course he was a part of this. It seemed like everyone I began to trust was involved in some way.

I was _desirable_ in the market. A lot of men had offered to buy me. Naturally, I got sold to the worst of them, but that wasn't the point now. Benjamin had saved me from them, made me so strong that they would never be able to touch me again.

Or at least that was what I thought.

He assured me a thousand times over that coming near here was an accident, that he didn't mean to. I don't know why I believed him; maybe it was the desperation in his eyes that convinced me. Plus he didn't know who I was or why this building was so significant to me. He just new me as Tia, not Tia Pashaki. Not the girl who had been missing for four years and whose father was a prime suspect. Not the girl who had been starved for a month and raped countless times. Not the girl who had begged for death for so long she finally just gave up and welcomed it.

He knew me as the happier version of myself, the version that I was determined to be in this new life. Forget the past; forget the problems and hurt and worries and pain. It didn't exist anymore.

I was going to be all right.

**Please, please, please, review. I will love you all forever if you do!**


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